What now ?
by MathildeM
Summary: After the war with the Espada, Yoruichi tries to reconnect with SoiFon, but SoiFon doesn't know if she wants it. SoiFon/Yoruichi romance
1. Chapter 1

What now ?

/

SoiFon is as always watching over her warriors's training with the stern face of the fierce Captain that she is. Her spine is stiff, her stare is sharp, and as the small wind comes playing with her two white braids down her back she observes the technics of her shinigami like a hawk. The war with Aizen is over, her arm has been healed and growned back by Orihime's shy care while she was resting in the Fourth Divison, and now she is restoring the discipline to her own division with an iron grip. Her warriors, both shinigami and Onmitsukido must not relent in their shrive for perfection, she will not tolerate any laziness among her squad. As she surveys the series of moves exerced in the main yard under her, she sees Omaeda is not among them. Again. The lieutenant thinks that his rank gives him some priviledges, and he is right about that, however his duties are different as well, but that part don't seem to have registered in his brain. The idiot is probably busy eating and yelling somewhere in the Rukongai. This behaviour of bullying simple souls will no longer be tolerated. It's been naging at the back of her mind, but she honestly didn't have the time do deal with her second's comportment before now. Between all the paperwork, the missions, and the recent dabacle of the Seireitei facing rogue captains and the Espada, SoiFon just starts to breath a little easier. The Gotai 13 is slowly coming down it's previous crisis, the dust of the war is settleing. There are no urgencies now, but there are reports to write none the less. The tool of the multiple battles is high, both on death and wounded, but also on the intelligence level as well. Which is her part. There are mountains of informations to triage and fold, and that is what she is currently doing in her mind while looking at the ward where the black troops continue the sequence of silent deadly moves and again.

Her breath catches a little when she senses the reiatsu so familiar and disturbing now. She is still not sure how to act when her past mentor is arround. Not that she had many opportunities to find out. Since their raw fight when the human Ichigo made his way to the once prisoner Kuchuki Rukia, which leaded to Aizen's revelations, they barely exchanged a few sentences here and there in strategic meetings and such. Today SoiFon doesn't have to rush anywhere to deal with a crisis, and she briefly wonders if it's a good thing. The presence of the shadow behind her makes her uneasy.

Or course, none of her inner turmoils can be read in the discipline of her stance. Her short intake of breath when she realised the situation is the only tell of her disconfort, but she doubts anyone has picked up on that.

'Oi, SoiFon'

The playfull greeting is enough to tell that Yoruichi picked up on it. SoiFon represses a sigh and wills herself to keep her posture intact, fierce grey eyes glaring maybe a little too much at her warriors below. Feeling the burn of their Taichou upon them, the shinigami make their strikes more precise with renew energy. Good.

'Yoruichi-sama' she responds with her low, controled voice.

She hears her sigh somewhere behind her, but she doesn't turn. She doesn't adknowledge the company. She doesn't know how, but she won't admit that. So she looks to her troops and pretends like she is alone as always. But she is not.

In a heartbeat, the shadow behind her is no more, and Yoruichi is standing close in her back, almost touching her haori. She can feel the tall woman's fingers playing with the golden rings or her braids and she tries very hard not to react to that. Her breath really wants to change its pattern but she won't let it. This woman makes her feel, but she won't let it. Not again.

'I told you to drop the -sama. You and i both know i don't deserve it from you now'

Yoruichi's voice is low, and if SoiFon wanted to look for it she would hear the remorse in it. She hears it. She doesn't want to hear it. She doesn't want to care.

She doesn't respond.

Yoruichi toys with her braids once more with a new sigh. SoiFon pretends she isn't here, pretends she cannot feel the heat from her chocolat skin, pretends she cannot see the locks of purple hair dancing in the wind at the periphery of her vision. She keeps her eyes on the ground, where she vaguely registers feet moving about. Her hands are fists bending her muscles under her uniform. She didn't realise her body started to react. It is not good. She forces her fingers to release the tension and focus on maintaining her breathing normal.

The woman hasn't desapeared behind her. On the contrary Yoruichi is resting her chin on SoiFon's right shoulder now, their cheek almost brushing. The black hands come catching the wooden railing as she pushes her body flush on SoiFon's back, almost forcing the Captain to step forward to keep her balance. Almost. But the Shihoin heir is an expert of martial arts and she puts just the right amound of pression to be close and touch the railing while maintaining both of their balance. SoiFon can feel the heat of her against her now, and the proximity makes her lost for a second. For a moment she feels. For a moment, her body drives free and her breath catches, her heart jumps wild in her chest, the blood rings in her ears and all she can focus on is how all of her yearn for the woman touching her now, how her skin screams to be stroke by her. For a moment, nothing matters but the golden eyes and the chocolat skin, the easy wit and playfull voice she loves. Her body is already molding itself into her, sinking into the embrace with a desperat need and hope, and the light relief to go home. It is all so tempting and she is lost, unbalanced in her mind. Yoruichi's arm comes to her waist, her hand settles on her belly, a thumb starts stroking her stomach.

SoiFon's vision blurs. Her face is contorted, her jaw so thight her teeth might break. Her whole body is trembling now, and she doesn't know how to stop it. She is petrified inside, her control slipping through her fingers so fast. The walls she built so long ago arround her heart are trembling, and she knows if she doesn't move now they might crumble down. That can't happen, she can't be vulnerable ever again. Not when is hurt so much, not when she felt like dying a century ago. Not when she worked so hard to stand tall again. Alone.

Her chin is to her chest as she rolls her spine on itself. The hand on her stomach is firm and warm, and through her teary eyes she sees the velvet skin holding her close. Her own fingers twitch to tangle with it. When Yoruichi brushes her cheek to SoiFon, nuzzling her ear with her nose, SoiFon shuts her eyes hard.

'Soi...'

The soft plea breathed to her skin is like a slap to her core. Faster than lightning she pushes herself out of the hold, straighens her spine and desapeares with a shunpo. Her brain has shut down so she moves on instinct, out of the Seireitei. Instantly she curses her decision to let her instinct lead her feet, for now she is standing in the last place she ever wants to be. The clearing. The clearing she avoided to come to, the clearing she made a point never to think about ever again. Their clearing.

She grittes her teeth once again but her jaw won't cooperate. Her whole body doesn't agree to her tension anymore, so she sinks to the ground like a lifeless doll, dull with a heartache she swore to burry and never adknowledge. But her walls are down now, she can feel it. Her precious fortress is no more, and her sorrow is drowning her.

So she cries. She, the all mighty Taichou of the Second Division, the proud Commander of the Onmitsukido, head of her family, lies on the ground, uniform stains with durt and grass, face smudged with fluids she swore never to let out, and she feels small again, and so, so totally lost.

/

/

/

/

TBC ?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

SoiFon is so lost in her turmoil she doesn't realise she is not alone anymore. Yoruichi followed her. Of course. The queen of shunpo is nothing if not efficient when she wants to be. Behind her lay back attitude she is a great fighter and a trusted commander when she decides to stop being lazy. The woman is so complex and beautifull, SoiFon always had a hard time standing next to her. Between her awe, her selfdepreciation and her obvious respect mixt with fascination of her princess, SoiFon never could relax and be at ease with the woman she admired for so long. And she admired her for good reasons.

Yoruichi is standing a few feet behind her, she can feel it now. Her sobs are subdue if not calmer, she is still unstable to say the least and she can't make her body move from the ground. The tears and the sorrow keep flowing out of her without consent, her whole being behave like a storm leeking out of her. She kept it inside for so long, and now it wants out, in an explosion of cries that doesn't seem to end. She is crying again and again, she doesn't know for how long, her brain is a fog and her face hurts from crying so hard, she doesn't know if she has been here for minutes or hours, and she doesn't know for how long someone has been watching her fall apart.

Yoruichi.

SoiFon should feel ashamed for her weakness to show, she should feel ambarrassed to let it rule her. She should crush this _feelings_ with her fist and burn her heart to ashes. She should. She sure knows she can. It's in her, and many times before she almost did. She almost took that final step between burying her heart and destroy it all together. She never crossed that line. So now, lying on the durt with her face full of tears, snort and saliva, she should feel pathetic and awkward. But she doesn't.

Strangely, she is relieved. There is this burden that she's been carying for so long, but now it seems to leave her be. To let her breath. She feels delighted and so, so weightless she almost chokes on the laugther that bubbles in her chest, wanting realise. Her throat contracts and she lets out the sound, a cringing noise she never knew she could make, and the sound flyes out of her, into the light, setting her free. The cry is long and strangle, jerky from lack of air and fluids blocking the way, but she keeps doing it between gulps of air, her chest and her belly burning her insides, throwing it all out. Out of her.

She laughs, and she cries, she is insane and everything is clear at the same time.

It feels so good and so hard, shes doesn't know how much she can stand. But she does, and she knows she can trust the process. She doesn't prevent it, she is beyond the point of restrain, she has left free range to her body and her soul at work, and she choses to trust, to trust her inner self and to open herself to whatever it is that is happening to her.

So yes, she vaguely notices Yoruichi's reiatsu, but her brain scans rapidly the area and sees they are alone in the clearing, no-one else is joining them, so her body and her mind decide it is okay. SoiFon is honestly too tired to care. She is barely conscious at that point.

Moments pass and finaly her jerky body starts to calm. Her muscles stop convulsing and find release on the grass. She is numb, but at peace, as her face relax and her eyes flutter the light away. Her breathing eases and her chest feels wide open and so, so light.

She sighs and closes her eyes, sleep spreading in her every cell. And as her consciousness fades into nothingness and rest, something warm and soft brushes her forehead, a distant strained voice murmurs in the dark.

'Soi...'

/

When she comes to her senses again, there is a lazyness about it. She doesn't want to wake just yet, she is good in the haze of her consciousness, acuretly aware of the lightness she feels everywhere. She feels good for the first time in a long time, maybe for the first time ever in fact, so she nuzzles into her soft pillow and will herself to sleep again. That is, until her brain registers the warmth and the scent of her said pillow. She could recognise this perfume anywhere. She wakes fully with a start, her eyes wide open and her heart jumping all around in her chest, but still her body refuses to cooperate with her mind and stays frozen, unable to move, too fuzzy in it's lazyness to do anything about their curent position. For she knows now, she is lying with her head on Yoruichi's lap.

There are so many levels where none of this is acceptable. Her whole life SoiFon has been raised to honor, worship and protect the Shihoin princess as if she were a Godess and she herself was nothing but a worm allowed to be in her holy presence. Even with hundred years apart, the blind devotion is printed in her very cells, hammered into her by her family from the very moment she was able to comprehend the society she grew up in. She, from the House of Fon, always knew her place, and it never was meant to be lying on the Head of the Shihoin clan's lap.

Then, there is this all abandonment and bitter betrayal issues still lingering between them.

However, even with this obvious reasons, SoiFon's body refuses to move. The sweet indolence her limbs are still clinging to is gone from her mind, but all she can do is blink the haze away, hoping for someone, anyone to come barging in and shatter the moment they are visibly sharing without her full consent.

'Yare, yare, you always think so loud' The Shihoin's playfully annoyed voice rings out above her. 'Don't worry, Soi, no-one will know' The inflection of this last sentence is different, serious and soft. The words are barely vanished into the silent clearing that warm, smooth fingers start carressing Soi's hair. Yoruichi's fingers. Carressing. Her. She doesn't know what to make of it. She is too vulnerable, with her body refusing her orders. Above her the heiress hums quietly, her carress becomes a massage, gently spreading motions all over SoiFon's skull, coaking her body to relax more. This treator welcomes it greedily.

'I thought about taking you, you know. With me.' She clarifies unnecessarily. Soi's breath catches. Yoruichi senses it and moves to massage her forehead too, kneading the point between her brows. 'You're always so serious, so studious. You were a great warrior then, i knew you would become a force to be recoin with. I knew you would make your family proud, like you wanted to. You see, that night, what i was about to do, it would have destroy your future irrevocably. There was no return from that.' She sighs into the falling night.

SoiFon can only listen, laying on the ground, her head on Yoruichi's lap facing the orange jacket clothing her. Her ears pick up everything, and she knows her Godess so well she can almost guess the mimics marring her figure. She knows what Yoruichi looks like now, if her body would allow her to move she would see the Shihoin wearing a seriousness she rarely shows to the world. The woman always plays the bored, layed back princess, but it is all a façade for the nobility to see, so they leave her be, breath a little under the weight of tradition.

' I was hardly prepared to dishonor my family' There is a knot in her throat, her voice wavers a little but she swallows and she carries on. ' I never hoped to be back in here, in Soul Society, with all the secrety out in the open. My name washed of the shame.' SoiFon can picture the bittersweet smile on Yoruichi's face now. ' My parents died believing i was a treator, they never saw the other side of the story. My story. They died ashamed and sad, angry too i suppose. Not a happy death. I... '

SoiFon wills her body to move. She can hear all the subtle cracks in the voice of her mentor. She never wanted that, not really, she never wished for Yoruichi to break appart.

'I choose to do it, to help Kisuke ' Her tone is raw but she keeps talking, like she knows now would be the only opportunity to do so, for SoiFon to listen fully. For a moment SoiFon wonders if Yoruichi used kido on her, rending her unable to move. But then, she guesses, even if she did it is only fair, for if she was able to she would have flee a long time ago. So she swallows her pride and closes her eyes, willing herself to listen to the woman she always hold dear in her heart, even in the heat of her hatred. The woman who bares many masks, one of them even being a cat form, never baring herself to anyone, always playing with illusions and apparencies to get to her goal. Now, in this clearing, Yoruichi reveals herself for the second time in all of their life moments shared together. The first moment, Soi remembers, was in this very same clearing when their positions were reversed.

'I was... not prepared to it, none of it. I was scared. He was scared. At that moment, even with my years, i felt young and foolish. I felt like a fool, reckless and stupid, but unable to do anything about it. It was already too late, there was nothing left to do but desapear. How could i drag you into this ? Into this mess ? Into this utter disgrace and shame ? I know ' She cuts sharply with a dark laugh 'you would have fallowed me. You loved me, and i loved you. It was always that simple between us, even with all the fuss you made about honoring me. ' She teases with a smile in her voice. The playfulness is gone in her next words. 'You would have hate me. ' She says it quietly but surely. SoiFon's eyes are wide and she wants to deny it. Yoruichi senses it and start waving her fingers into black hair again. She didn't realise she stopped. 'Not at first, but eventually.' She snorts a little. 'You would have hate it, Soi, every part of it. Wandering in the human world without any idea of what comes next, settling into a filthy shop... all of it. I had my share of the Gotei 13 life, i lived it all to the top. I was Taichou of my unit and of the Onmitsukido, i created most of my technics and taught some of them to you and Byakuya-bo' There is nostalgia in her voice now. This woman is so full of colors and complexities, SoiFon could listen to her all day. 'Even then, i had a hard time accepting my new... living arrangements. It was hard, Soi, and you would have hate it. Of course you would have wave it off saying that you were fine as long as you were with me, but i stayed out there for more than a hundred years, Soi, a _hundred_ years. Kisuke was my friend, i knew how to deal with him, and i can be very lazy if i want to be. I can be patient. I am ancient, after all. But you, your need for discipline and serious would have crashed with Urahara, not to mention you never liked me befriending him in the first place.'

There is a pause then. SoiFon stares at the orange material of the jacket, very aware of Yoruichi's scent surrounding her.

'I guess since i've got your attention...' There is a smirk there. 'I should be done with the whole truth, huh ?' And for the first time ever, there is uncertainty in her tone. The hand on Soi's head stills and tenses a little before redrawing completely. ' You see, it broke my heart to leave it all behind, to shame my family, to leave my duties... But most of all, to leave you. I loved you SoiFon, from the very moment i saw you fighting back the day we met. I didn't know then, i never knew until the very end, until the moment to leave you, when i decided not to take you with me. It took everything i had, every inch of discipline not to seek you out, to see your face one last time, to say good bye. I knew if i saw you i would have give in to my selfishness and take you with me... When we were finaly safe enough to rest, to drop my guard down in the privaty of my new room in the smelly human shop... I fell on the ground and cried. ' Her voice cracks and she pauses a little. ' Never in my life have i cried like that. But what was worst was that above everything i was mourning for, your face, your laugh, your scent were the ones haunting me. You were everywhere.'

The last sentence is a whisper in the night. The wind plays slowly in the trees, no-one disturbs this moment of baring soul.

' You were everywhere, telling me to come back. Calling me out on our promess. And i realised too late that i was a fool. I choose my friend over you. I choose Kisuke because he needed me, he was lost and alone and afraid and _right there_ , so i jumped to help him. I don't regret it now, not after all the years. From experience i know if i hadn't been there he would have gone a different way, and not the good kind. With his brain and ideas... Let's just say i stopped a lot of fires from going wild. I don't regret it now, but then, back then it was different. Back then i could only feel you. You were haunting me and i kept clunching my chest for it to stop. I hurt. I hurt so much and i didn't understand it. Why would i hurt so much over you more than over my family, over my mother ?'

Yoruichi's body is tense now, her speech is fast, thick. She pauses her narration and slips herself out from under her charge, positioning SoiFon in a sited posture against the bark of a tree. That answers the question then. She did use kido on her to make her still. When SoiFon narrows her eyes at the manipulation Yoruichi has the decency to give her a shippish smile, not quite daring meeting her gaze. The queen of shunpo is nervous and fidgeting. SoiFon never saw her behave like that. She stands up and starts pacing on the ground, totaly engrossed in her telling. SoiFon can only watch her toying with her fingers, dark silhouette moving in the garden, the stars and moon shining softly behind as the night settles.

'It was maybe the third week after we landed on the human plan. I was drunk, like i always was. Heavy drunk. I was a mess. I couldn't dull my feeling. My chest was killing me.' She clunches at her jacket above her heart subconsciously, like feeling the ghost of the sensation she is mentioning. 'Kisuke found me, i was crying, and drinking, and scratching my skin with bloddy nails, repeating your name over and over. He listened. He listened to my sobs and my confusion, and my hurt. He told me he was sorry. He actually apologised for dragging me into this. I didn't realise i needed that. But most of all he told me what that ache in my chest was. He said it was the effect of a broken heart. I didn't understand at first, but he said... He said he felt the same when Yurina died five years ago.'

Yoruichi stops pacing then. She moves a little to the right, so her profil is to the silenced Taichou as she tilts her head up and looks at the moon. A soft smile plays at her lips.

'Yurina. She was Kisuke's great love, his wife. Her death broke his heart so hard he thought he would die.'

Yoruichi brings a hand flat on her chest, still staring at the night's sky.

'The broken heart of a woman in love, he told me.'

There is a serenity about the scene, the way all tension seems to leave Yoruichi's body. She is calm and collected when she turns around and face SoiFon still sitting on the ground. Her eyes are bright yellow, clear and open when she bores her gaze into her once protegée.

'I realised then that i was in love with you'

SoiFon's every muscle tense under her stare. The words ring loud in the silent clearing. She cannot take it anymore. Almost without her full consciousness, she starts gathering her reiatsu into her mouth, and focuses on forming words. She could try and remove the kido, she probably could, but she won't. This is not an affrontement, this is a conversation. A conversation she wants an acting part of now. She finds new sensations in her tongue and her mouth when she manages to gritt out

'Yorui-chi... Re-lease... your-kido'

Her grey eyes are burning with determination, she knows, and maybe the mentor could take it as a will to fight, but Yoruichi knows better. She knows SoiFon's temper and she can read behind the burn, she can read that this time, SoiFon will not escape.

Yoruichi's half smile makes her act more like herself again, when she flicks one hand in the air dismissively. 'Well, you didn't give a me a choice now, did you ? Always talking over me or avoiding me, mmm ? Don't think i didn't notice. Of course i noticed. I notice everything about you, baka'

Her last sentence is soft and her whole face goes serious. She moves her hand in front of SoiFon and the hazy sensation vanishes instantly. The Taichou swallows and clenches her hands twice, checking her body muscles's response.

'Arigato'

She feels... well, she doesn't know how she feels. She feels drowned, that's for sure, her massive catharsis moment before relieved her from a huge burden, making her walls crach down, but right now she doesn't want to put them back up. Not in the quiet of their clearing, not after Yoruichi's explanation. And her sort of declaration.

She can't quite get her head around that one.

'Oy, Soi, you can talk now, if you want'

There is the usual bored annoyance in Yoruichi's tone now, the woman staring down at her with her arms crossed at her chest.

/

/

/

TBC

:o)


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The way Yoruichi is looking at her makes it obvious to SoiFon that she doesn't really have an option. The Shihoin is waiting for an answer. SoiFon grits her teeth and tries very hard not to let her walls come back up, her usual -safe- anger nearly in her reach. Her ex mentor triggers this kind of reaction in her. Trigered. Because as she looks at herself now, her mind stays relaxed and in a relatively peacefull state despite Yoruichi standing tall above her with her arms crossed and her little pleased smile spread all over her face. This clear demonstration of coy should have make SoiFon seeth. But she doesn't.

Could she say that she is finaly at peace with her past ?

After everything was reveiled, she objectively accepted the story of Kisuke Hurahara and Yoruichi Shihoin, Taichous of the Gotei 13. As a Captain herself, she accepted it. She swallowed the old sensation of betrayal, which wasn't true after all those years believing it to be, she noded along with everyone and went to battle against the Espada. As an officer of the Soul Society. Officialy, it was almost easy to erase the plate and start anew. A closed file in her paperwork as head of police in Soul Society. She wouldn't even be surprised if all the previous Taichous came back to their post. Maybe Yamamoto would institute some new co-captaincy to each unit concerned. Hers included. She wasn't thrilled about that idea when she realised they were all back in, but as an officer she accepted the possibility. She accepted a lot of this. Officialy.

As for her _personal_ feelings... Well, SoiFon made it a point not to dwel on it. So much that she disregarded to even take a pause to look at it. She never stoped working, giving orders, filing files, supervising training, she increased her own training in the nights or early mornings and managed to be very, very exhausted and barely slept. She managed avoiding herself just fine after the war finaly ended. But now, now is the first time she actually stops, she actually breathes and look. Her whole being made her stop and look. It made her crack.

So now she is cracked open like a nut and she honestly doesn't know what's in it now that all the durt has been cleaned with her earlier break down. It seems that in this instant, she is empty and really relieved. Yes, if she has to put a word on it, she'd say that she is _relieved_ and so, so light. The feeling is so odd for her that it makes her smile a little as she lets her gaze wanders in the quiet clearing. The air is warm, soft, and the sweet sakura flowers scent draps the scene with serenity. A peace SoiFon feels growing in her chest as her grin becomes bolder on her lips.

She knows Yoruichi is waiting for her to talk, to move, _something_. She can see her shadowing over there, her silhouette draws on the moon, and she doesn't care. For the very first time in her life, _she doesn't care_ about Yoruichi Shihoin at all. She isn't her servant anymore, she isn't her collegue either, she isn't her apprentice nor her friend, in fact, at the state that they're in, she is barely an acquaintance. And not just in her mind, but in her emotions too. She tried so hard to get over Yoruichi, to bury her feelings for her and never look, who knew all she had to do was to actually let it all out and get rid of it all ?

Time passes and SoiFon enjoys being relaxed for the very first time since her childhood. Since before she realised her family name and all the duties and expectations that came with it. So, it's been a long time since she felt so at ease with herself. Her muscles are smooth, her brain is buzzing with tranquility and her small smile hasn't leave her lips. Yoruichi, on the other hand, isn't the patient type. Never has been. She is, after all, the Shihoin Princess and is used to get what she wants. Still, a hundred years in the human plan stripped of her titles should have tought her something... right ? SoiFon doesn't want to dwell on it. She doesn't want to think, she is good as she is now. Content. The dark woman humpfs somewhere near her and the air shifts. The Captain doesn't have to look to know she uncrossed her arms with a pout. There is some more rustle before a presence sits beside her, leaving mere inches between them in the wide open clearing. There is clearly enough space to site anywhere else, but the shunpo expert chose the closer to her, once again disregarding personal bounderies what so ever. Even so, there is no playfulness in this move, SoiFon notices vaguely, Yoruichi must have pick on her mood and dropt the charade, her previous tension fading away. For now, the Shihoin is calmed.

Times passes again and none of them talk. SoiFon contemplates the nature at peace and breathes the sweet parfum of the air. Thanks to both her haori and her Omnitsukido uniform she is quite warm in the night, she doesn't use her reiatsu at all, only masking it so no one looking for her would trespass on her peacefull time. Yes, peacefull time. She hums quietly at that. She is at peace. Finaly. She wants to hold on that feeling as long as she can before going back to her life, her duties mostly. Dealing with her Captaincy, the Omnitsukido and her own House is a three jobs full time that she gladly took on before, to keep her busy, to escape herself. Now there is no reason to. She hums again into the night. Yoruichi will come in handy, after all. Maybe they can collaborate and ease the tasks, Omaeda absolutly isn't one for help, the man is fukotaichou by pretence only.

'Huh, Soi ?' The voice on her left is hesitant, almost shy. Never in her life SoiFon has heard this tone of voice in Yoruichi's many colorful expressions. It is... strange and somehow fiting for this new beginning.

'Mm ?' is her only response as she still is gazing at the stars above.

'An't you gonna say something ?'

There is no demand in her voice this time, no swagger. She is probing with words carefully picked. SoiFon hums once more. It is a nice change too. There are so many changes setting place on this night, it seems. It is like a rebirth for SoiFon, she is sure of it as it is deep and absolut in its intensity. Maybe it could be a rebirth for their relation too. There is a new pace in their communication. For now anyway. Until the princess gets bored.

Really, SoiFon doesn't want to talk, she doesn't want to spoil this state she is in.

'Let's enjoy the quiet a little bit longer' she murmurs into the night then, giving Yoruichi something to hold on. Patience, it says.

For now, SoiFon doesn't want to talk.

/

She doesn't remember closing her eyes or diving down to sleep. She was serene in the silence and it seems at some point she dozed off, for now her consciousness wakes. Her eyes flutter slowly open as she takes on her position. She is still sitted her back against the sakura tree, but in her slumber her head has slidded to the side in search for a pillow she found in her neighbour's shoulder. Their sides are touching now, orange jacket against the black and white of her haori, her yellow obi barely visible. She doesn't move and keeps her breathing even as she watches dark chocolate fingers idly playing quietly with the ring of one of her white braid.

Yoruichi.

In the back of her head SoiFon briefly wonders how many times did she lost consciousness since they got here. It doesn't really matter, what matters is that each time she allowed herself to be unguarded because Yoruichi was here to keep watch. No matter what her past and current situation, Yoruichi is a reliable person, at least on the professional front.

It's time to talk.

The Captain finishes to wake up with a grunt, stretching her stiff muscles and slowly withdrawning her head from the shoulder, massaging her neck along the way. Her body cracks as she shifts back a little, not much, takes a deep breath and finaly turns to face her. Yoruichi hasn't moved, the long braid still losely in her hand, her face only showing her profile. She is waiting. She has been waiting a lot tonight, serious and calm. The sun isn't out yet, but the sky has already started to embrace shades of blue. The time passed differently tonight.

A small smile grazes SoiFon's lips as she choses not to take her braid back. She doesn't want to send the wrong message, even though she doesn't know what message she actually wants to give. She remembers the evening with clearity. Surprisingly, her throat isn't sore when she speaks.

'I forgive you, Yoruichi'

She hasn't planned to say that. The words just come out and the peace remains, stronger.

Those words are healing balm, for her and for Yoruichi, even though the princess didn't dare ask for it.

The dark woman beside her gasps but doesn't turn. She doesn't move an inch, even. Somehow, SoiFon sees it as the testimony of their new beginning still at work. The Shihoin princess is still and quiet, and she isn't bored yet. SoiFon wonders how long this side of Yoruichi is gonna last. She tilts her head to the side and sighs before continuing.

'I finaly am able to move on' She admits quietly, staring at her companion's face with a strange lack of emotions. So many times before, she would have blush, stutter, or if not that she would have be mad, angry, resentful. Full of hate too.

'I heard what you said and i respect it. I also know that the new me is different from what you knew back then, even from what you know now. I barely know who i am, really. I always was someone evolving around you, even when you were gone. Now, for the very first time, i don't feel the connection anymore. I am finaly free.'

Yoruichi visibly swallows as her head slowly turns toward the ground, defited.

'For a long time you wanted me to stop seeing you as a princess, as a godess. Even in my hatred i still did see you as such, above and beyond me. ' She smiles softly. 'Not anymore.'

As slowly as the silent woman dipped her head, SoiFon moves and puts her hand on her shoulder, squezzing lightly. She lets her hand there before she continues, her voice smooth in the clearing.

'Since i was a child i was shaped to gravitate around you, one way or an other, it's who i was supposed to be. I was never free to be myself. You know what it's like. You are the heir of one of the Four Noble Houses. You discovered freedom in the human plan, and for that, i am happy for you.'

Her companion grites her teeth at that, her fingers twitch on the golden ring.

'Yoruichi.'

SoiFon's voice is firm. The ex-mentor turns her head and finally meet her eyes. Her face is serious, her eyes glissening, but she keeps quiet. SoiFon is grateful for it, and once again wonders how long will that last.

'I _am_ happy for you. For a hundrer years, you've been cut out from the Gotei 13, cut out from responsabilities, and you could _breath_. I didn't. I choke. I choke, and i choke, i could barely breath before, you were my oxygen, and when you were gone i stoped breathing all together. I never learned to breath on my own.' She gives her companion a gentle smile as the ex-captain attempts to open her mouth to speak. SoiFon squezes the shoulder she still holds and Yoruichi closes her jaw without a sound.

'I want to thank you, because tonight something happened inside of me, i don't know what it is exactly but it set me free. And i know you were the trigger of it. '

Yoruichi tilts her head to the side and looks at her with new eyes, scanning her reiatsu. SoiFon nods, she already knows what she is reading, she can feel it in her every cells.

'My signature changed.' She whispers, still in awe of her own transformation.

'So, you see, i have much to adjust on my own now. All the choices i made, i made because of you, weither i admitted it or not. I don't want that anymore. You don't want it too. So i am asking you to wait.'

Yoruichi's head snaps at attention, her back straight as she turns her whole body to face SoiFon now. Her eyes are wide open, her pupils dilated and her stare is burning with purpose.

SoiFon smiles fully at that, for the first time in her life she really is smiling now, a full toothy smile with sparkling eyes. No restrain.

'I want you to wait, and i want you to be my friend. Can you do that ?'

It's her turn to tilt her head to the side, eyeing the Shihoin criticaly. Face still very serious Yoruichi nods her head freneticly up and down like a little child, her attention solely on the conversation. It seems that a new equality is taking roots between them. The suffix -sama and all the decorum is nothing but an old memory, from an other time.

SoiFon laughs freely, amused by Yoruichi's eagerness. She is light. She lets herself laugh as the Shihoin watches her, an amased expression on her face. When her giggle subdue, SoiFon withdrawns her hand and straightens herself with a playful glint in her eyes.

'So we start fresh'

She extends a hand between them, a bright smile on her face as her eyes catch Yoruichi's.

'My name is SoiFon, nice to meet you'

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A/N

I felt like making a short one for a change. I may write a sequel to this, as i want to give them a chance to start new, really new, in a day to day life. I feel SoiFon's character is too submitted to Yoruichi to make a good match, so they first need to be on equal level to work. That being said, i might write this pairing in an other light in an other story later too, seeing as a cocky Yoruichi and a grumpy SoiFon are fun to read. We'll see.

For those who read it, i'm still planning on finishing 'Can we take a break' and 'Small gesture'. Updates will come soon, hopefully. I admit i am a little stuck on fighting scenes, i usualy tend to avoid writing these but with Clarke training i cant really skip _all_ of it, can i ? ^^

As always, i thank you for your support !


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